


Christmas cheer

by Rosetylars



Category: Cricket RPF, Sports RPF
Genre: Christmas Cookies, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Special, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:28:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28287747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosetylars/pseuds/Rosetylars
Summary: CA need the boys to film some festive content for their media channels.A Christmas special, featuring gingerbread cookie making, a festive Q&A, some wedding talk and, of course, some flirting.
Relationships: Aaron Finch/Glenn Maxwell, Alex Carey/Kane Richardson, Marcus Stoinis/Adam Zampa, Pat Cummins/Mitch Marsh, Tim Paine/Steve Smith
Comments: 10
Kudos: 16





	Christmas cheer

Cricket Australia were looking for digital content to post on their social media channels throughout the festive season, so they called in some of the boys to film a few lighthearted festive activities.

They were competing in ‘random pairs’ - but really, it was just the couples -Tim and Steve, Pat and Mitch, Marcus and Adam, Kane and Kez, and Aaron and Glenn.

The first task: baking gingerbread cookies.

The media staff set the boys up in a huge kitchen - it looked like a home kitchen to the viewers, but it was actually a big set, with ample lighting for filming. It was probably used for filming reality cooking shows, or something along those lines. There was a long kitchen bench that each pair could work at.

“I’ve never eaten gingerbread in my life,” Marcus revealed.

Adam gave him an intrigued look, reaching up to wipe an eyelash away from under Marcus’ eye. “How come?”

Marcus shrugged. “My family does Greek treats,” he replied.

That was a good enough answer for Adam, but Mitch had heard him from the next bench, and couldn’t believe it.

“Wait, Stoin’s never had gingerbread?” Mitch gasped.

Pat’s eyes widened. “Ever?”

Marcus shrugged, shaking his head.

“Not even a gingerbread man from the school canteen?” Pat asked.

“Nup, I didn’t like the look on their faces,” Marcus replied.

Pat and Mitch exchanged a look, baffled.

The media manager set all of the pairs up with iPads on stands so that the recipe and instructions were displayed in front of them. She started the timer, and they were allowed to begin.

On the other side of the kitchen, at their own workspace, Tim and Steve looked at the iPad together.

“‘Preheat the oven’,” Steve read out, turning around and setting up the oven behind them as instructed. “Isn’t that kind of stupid when we have to cool the dough before we do anything?”

“Don’t think too deeply about it,” Tim chuckled. “I’ll sort out the baking tray.”

“Hang on, there’s another thing we need to do first,” Steve said.

Tim frowned, looking back at the recipe. “Baking tray is part of step one,” he replied, confused.

Steve bunched a hand in the front of Tim’s festive apron (adorned with smiling reindeers) and pulled him in for a quick peck.

“Ready to bake, now,” Steve declared, patting Tim’s chest fondly.

Tim was looking at him adoringly, momentarily distracted by his fiancé, when Glenn screwed up his face at the neighbouring bench.

“Yuck, boys,” Glenn protested. “It’s a baking competition, not a kissing competition.”

Aaron was behind Glenn, seemingly doing the first few steps himself without issue.

“Are you just gonna watch Aaron do all the work?” Tim teased.

Glenn rolled his eyes, smiling. “I read the instructions out, he does what they say,” he replied.

Aaron swatted lightly at his bum for that comment. “Shut up, Maxi,” he chuckled.

Across the room, Marcus and Adam were baking with a similar strategy to Glenn and Aaron - Adam was sitting up on the bench, reading the instructions, as Marcus did all of the figurative heavy lifting.

“What’s next?” Marcus asked, once their tray was prepared.

Adam looked down - he had his fingertip under the next instruction, ready to go. “We’re gonna start the mixture to make the dough.”

Before gathering all of the ingredients, Marcus stood between Adam’s legs and leant up for a quick kiss.

“We’re on camera,” Adam murmured, against Marcus’ lips.

Marcus shrugged, leaning back. “They’re gonna have to edit a lot out.”

Elsewhere, Kane and Kez had gotten off to a very quick start. They had already measured out all of their required ingredients. Kane was adding them to a big mixing bowl while Kez stirred, combining them as they went.

From the workspace beside theirs, Mitch looked over with envy.

“Patty, why are they so far ahead?” Mitch whined.

At the tone of Mitch’s voice, Pat paused what he was doing, wrapping Mitch up in a hug from behind.

“Why’s who ahead?”

“Kane and Kez,” Mitch replied, gesturing towards their bench with his head.

Pat looked over, humming with surprise. “They are, too.”

Kane overheard their discussion, exchanging an amused look with Kez.

“We’re making the vegan recipe,” Kane chimed in. “It’s a lot cleaner, like the lifestyle,” he teased.

Kez lightly swatted at Kane’s chest, chastising him.

Mitch rolled his eyes, a grin pulling at his lips. “I like to enjoy myself, mate,” he reasoned.

“And that is perfectly fine,” Kez said calmly, shooting Kane another look, warning him not to take it any further.

Pat looked back at their recipe. “Maybe we’re a bit slow because you knocked over the jar of chocolate chips that you weren’t even meant to open,” he said to Mitch.

“I didn’t mean to,” Mitch pouted. “I was just tasting one. You distracted me with your reindeer ears.”

Pat had forgotten he was wearing the headband with reindeer antlers on it - he reached up and felt them, slightly embarrassed. “Should I take them off?”

“What?! No,” Mitch assured. “You look very cute, darling.”

Pat blushed lightly, deciding they should probably get a move on if they were to ever finish their cookies.

By now, Tim and Steve had made good progress - they were just adding their last ingredients to the mixing bowl, almost ready to put their dough in the fridge.

“This is gonna take forever to cool,” Steve lamented.

Tim shrugged. “Maybe we can spend a bit of time together,” he replied.

At the bench beside them, Aaron looked up. “Didn’t you see the run sheet?” He asked Tim.

Tim frowned. “What run sheet?”

Aaron pulled his phone out of his pocket, showing Tim a document full of activities and the times they would be doing them.

Tim groaned. “Sorry, bub, I take it back,” he said to Steve. “We have more activities.”

Steve shrugged. “It’ll be fun!”

*

Everyone’s dough needed to cool in the fridge before continuing with the cookies, so the media manager took them all into another festively decorated set for their next activity. Tim went back and turned off the ovens - it had been an error in the non-vegan recipe, to call for the bakers to turn their ovens on so early.

Kane held back his commentary about the vegan recipe being superior... after a stern look from his boyfriend.

They were going to film a lighthearted question and answer video with a festive theme.

The first question was ‘what is the best Christmas present you’ve ever received?’

Tim was in the hot seat first, and he kept it simple. He spoke about his parents giving him his first full-sized Kookaburra bat as a boy, and several other boys’ answers were very similar.

When it was Mitch’s turn, he beamed. “Patty gave me a new phone, last Christmas,” he explained. “My old one was a bit of a dog... it had come along for one too many swims in my pocket, I think.”

The rest of the boys were standing behind the camera, watching, and there were several groans at Mitch’s words. Pat, however, was laughing as if he’d heard the funniest joke in the world.

Tim and Steve exchanged a knowing look.

“Also, my sister in law gave us a set of picture frames that ‘match the house’ because before that, none of the frames in the hallway matched each other,” Mitch continued.

Aaron mouthed the word ‘us’ and rolled his eyes. Mitch wasn’t exactly subtle about his and Pat’s relationship - after their wedding, they had changed their Instagram handles to reflect their new hyphenated surnames, and hadn’t looked back. 

When it was Pat’s turn, he had similarly gushy answers.

Behind the camera, Tim wondered whether he should’ve named something more personal than his first proper bat. When he suggested so to Steve, Steve just shook his head.

Steve leant in to whisper in Tim’s ear, “You gave me a ring just before Christmas last year.”

Tim’s heart warmed at the memory, and he brought Steve’s hand to his mouth, kissing his engagement band. “I’ll be giving you another one soon,” he promised.

Steve beamed. “Only a few months, now,” he agreed.

Standing nearby, Adam watched the older pair talking about their rings. Marcus had obviously overheard, too, because Adam could tell that he was trying to keep a calm expression. Adam decided to tease his poor boyfriend.

“Another wedding, hey,” Adam said lightly.

Marcus’ eyes widened slightly, and Adam watched his throat work as he swallowed.

“Yeah,” Marcus choked out. “It’s nice.”

“Could be us, one day,” Adam hinted, fighting to keep a straight face.

“Could be,” Marcus agreed, strained.

Adam knew he wasn’t a big fan of talking about it - which is why he couldn’t help but tease him, occasionally.

In a very similar situation, beside them, were Aaron and Glenn. Glenn had caught Aaron staring when Tim and Steve were gushing about their rings, and he couldn’t help but put Aaron on the spot.

“That should be us, A,” Glenn teased, gesturing towards Tim and Steve.

Aaron’s heart raced. He already had an engagement band for Glenn, but he kept talking himself out of it, whenever he thought he was going to pop the question.

Aaron met Glenn’s eyes, speechless, and Glenn just laughed, patting Aaron’s chest fondly.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to propose here, in front of all our friends,” Glenn teased.

Aaron chuckled softly with relief, kissing Glenn’s temple instead.

The boys answered a series of questions - one of them was ‘what is your favourite way to celebrate Christmas?’

They asked Tim first, and he gave a polite answer about CA’s Christmas buffet for the families ahead of their final training for the Boxing Day Test.

Behind the camera, Mitch hooked his chin over Pat’s shoulder. “Mine’s with you. My dream is both of our families, in Perth, having one big day together,” he told his husband.

Pat melted. “That’s gorgeous, bub. But where would we fit that many people?”

“Probably Shaun’s house,” Mitch chuckled. “They could have fifteen more kids and still not fill that place.”

Pat laughed warmly. “I don't mind where we are, so long as we're still able to watch the carols in bed,” he said wistfully.

“Baby, you say that every year, and every year, you fall asleep before the end,” Mitch reminded fondly.

Pat laughed, turning his head and catching the corner of Mitch’s mouth in a kiss.

Filming the video was long process, but once the media staff were satisfied that they had enough footage to cut up into a Q&A video, the boys were able to return to their cookies.

“ _Now_ we turn the ovens on,” Kane declared, making everyone laugh.

“Who made you the oven boss?” Marcus asked, half-teasing.

Alex and Adam exchanged a look.

“Behave, boys,” Kez said lightly.

Once their ovens were on, the pairs each rolled out the dough into a flat piece, so they could begin using cookie cutters to make shapes.

In front of Pat on the bench were several metal cookie cutters, and Mitch was drawn to the reindeer-shaped one. He picked it up straight away and pressed it into the top left corner of their dough, but as he tried to lift it, one of the flimsy antlers stayed stuck to the baking paper.

“Guess we’ll need to roll this again,” Mitch sighed.

Pat waved a hand through the air. “It’s okay, I’m sure we’ll have other fails to add to the pile. Do you want to try this one?” Pat handed Mitch a tree-shaped cutter. “It’s less flimsy, should be easier.”

Of course, Pat was right. The tree-shaped piece of dough came out perfectly, and Mitch shifted it onto their baking tray with an egg slice.

At the workspace beside theirs, Kane had cut a little bit of dough off the end of their slab, putting it into his mouth to taste it.

Kez was startled. “Babe, no, that’s bad for you,” he worried.

Kane looked at him, chewing and swallowing before he spoke. “How come? It tastes good, by the way.”

“I’m glad,” Kez replied. “But you’re not meant to eat raw cookie dough,” he frowned.

“That’s normal cookie dough, Kezza. Because of the raw eggs,” Kane replied.

Kez hadn’t made that connection. “Oh,” he breathed, relieved. “In that case, enjoy,” he chuckled. “But not too much, we need enough for them to judge at the end.”

Kane nodded, cutting a little strip of dough for Kez. He lifted it to his boyfriend’s mouth, and the younger man accepted it happily, licking Kane’s fingers for good measure.

“Good?” Kane asked.

“Very,” Kez agreed, leaning up to kiss Kane before they continued.

Eventually, everyone was satisfied with their cookie shapes, and the trays all went into the oven for a little while, giving the boys enough time to clean up their benches before they decorated.

Steve had pretty much cleaned up his and Tim’s bench space by the time Tim set the timer on the oven. Tim looked at the bench with surprise.

“That was quick,” he marvelled, pulling Steve into his side, kissing his forehead.

Steve preened at the praise. “I put a lot of our spare ingredients away as we went, to save the hassle,” he explained.

“You’re amazing, bub,” Tim gushed, pecking his lips.

Pat and Mitch weren’t cleaning up as efficiently. Mitch had taken a sponge and tried to clean up some flour, ending up smearing more of it across the bench than had been there before.

Pat bit his lip. “How about you pack up some of the ingredients? I’ll fix that,” he assured, squeezing Mitch’s forearm.

Mitch kept wiping, trying to fix the mess. “I can fix it,” he offered.

“It’s okay,” Pat replied, kissing Mitch’s shoulder. “I’ve got it.”

Their bench was clear just in time for the cookies to come out of the oven, and then it was time to decorate.

At Tim and Steve’s bench, Steve already had a little icing pen in his hand, ready for Tim to get the tray out of the oven.

“They’ll still be hot,” Tim warned. “The icing could melt.”

Steve shrugged. “It’ll be okay,” he assured.

He started by drawing some clothes and a face on a gingerbread man, but just as Tim had predicted, the icing melted and ran a bit… making the man look quite creepy.

Tim and Steve stood, looking at it wordlessly. They exchanged a look, coming to a silent conclusion. Steve picked it up, biting its head and chest off. He fed the bottom half to Tim, destroying the evidence.

Glenn looked over from the neighbouring workspace. “How’s your gingerbread man?” 

“What gingerbread man?” Steve asked, dusting crumbs off his mouth.

Glenn frowned. “The one you just decorated,” he replied.

“Not sure what you’re talking about, Maxi,” Tim replied, fighting to keep a straight face.

Glenn shrugged, getting back to decorating his own cookies with Aaron, and Steve laughed softly.

He reached up to wipe a tiny bit of frosting from Tim’s lip.

Adam and Marcus were having more joy - they had waited a little while for their cookies to cool, avoiding the issue of melting.

Adam decorated a tree-shaped cookie first, using the icing pens to make it look like the tree had Christmas lights on it.

Marcus had been drawing a smiley face onto a gingerbread man, and he was very impressed by Adam’s handiwork.

“Jeez, Ads, you’re an artist,” he grinned.

Adam smiled. “Yeah? Think it’s alright?”

“It’s very pretty,” Marcus agreed. “Like you.”

Adam gave Marcus a don’t-be-so-sappy look, but Marcus saw the fond smile threatening to appear on his face.

Eventually, when all of the boys were satisfied with the decoration of their cookies, it was time for judging. The media staff had called in Marnus to judge the non-vegan cookies, and Sidds to judge the vegan ones, so that the judges weren’t biased by their own food preferences.

The pairs each gave their best cookie over to be judged, but the judges didn’t know whose was whose.

Sidds picked up Marcus and Adam’s nicely decorated tree-shaped cookie first.

“Great presentation,” Sidds commented. “Very nice decorations. Very festive. I’m a big fan.” He bit into it, having several more nibbles before deciding. “It tastes a bit floury, but overall the flavour is very nice. I like this one,” he concluded.

Adam and Marc exchanged pleased looks, and Sidds picked up the other vegan cookie he was sampling - this one was Kane and Kez’s.

They weren’t artists by any stretch of the imagination - this one was reindeer-shaped, but somewhere along the way, it had lost one hoof. They had decorated him with some questionable stripes, but Kane had assured Kez that his cheerful expression more than made up for it.

“I like the look on its face,” Sidds declared. “He’s charming. I like it. The rest of the presentation is a bit lacking… he’s lost a foot.” Sidds bit into the cookie, tasting it carefully. “Great flavour here. A lot to think about,” he added.

Kane and Kez were happy enough with that feedback, and it was Marcus’ turn to try the other three cookies before Sidds delivered his verdict.

The first cookie Marnus picked up was Tim and Steve’s. It was another gingerbread man, but a lot more successful than their first attempt had been - they had drawn a Santa outfit on him: beard, red suit and all.

“This is very cute, so whoever made this, good job,” Marnus smiled. He bit its head off, chewing with his mouth open, making everyone cringe a little. “This is pretty good. Maybe a bit lacking in the ginger flavour, but I do like it,” he added.

The next cookie was Pat and Mitch’s - it was star-shaped, decorated with quite an intricate pattern of red, green and white icing.

“This is pretty,” Marnus declared. He bit an arm off the star, chewing thoughtfully. “I think the excessive icing makes it a bit too sweet, but the texture is great.”

The final cookie was Aaron and Glenn’s. It was another person-shaped cookie, and they had decorated it to look like an elf, though their artistic capabilities were not as great as their sporting ones.

“I must admit it’s not the best drawing I’ve ever seen, but icing is tough to manage, so that’s fair enough,” Marnus commented. He bit its head off, eating it slowly. “This is a great flavour,” he complimented. “When I think of gingerbread, this is what I’m after.”

The media manager told the boys it was time for the judges’ final verdicts, and everyone waited patiently for the results.

Sidds began. “Look, I’m no artist myself, so I do have sympathy for the creators of the friendly reindeer… but I’m gonna have to give it to the tree. It wasn’t a perfect taste, but it looked brilliant, and for Christmas, looks are three quarters of the challenge,” he declared.

The boys all shared a laugh, at that, and Adam gave Marc a little fist bump.

“Was it you guys?” Sidds asked, grinning.

“Yeah,” Adam replied, chuffed.

“Well done,” Sidds smiled. He then turned to Kane and Kez. “Sorry, boys. The reindeer was very charming, though,” he grinned.

Kane and Kez chuckled, and then it was time for Marnus’ verdict.

“These were all great, boys, I might have to take some more home for later,” Marnus began, smiling. “There’s a lot to weigh up here. Some looked good but their flavour wasn’t quite right, and some weren’t quite restaurant quality, decoration wise, but the flavour was perfect.” He thought about it for another moment, blowing a raspberry. “I’m gonna have to go with the elf, just because I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I ate it,” Marnus decided.

Aaron and Maxi shared a hug, pleased.

After that, the media manager said the boys were welcome to take their cookies home with them if they would like to, thanking them for all their efforts during the day.

When Tim and Steve were back at their bench, Tim began putting their cookies into a container. Steve wrapped his arms around Tim from behind, cuddling him.

“We should’ve won,” Steve declared.

Tim laughed. “If Marn knew who made what, he would’ve picked us for sure,” he teased.

Aaron scoffed from the next workspace. “In your dreams, boys,” he teased. “Don’t be jealous. You, too, could’ve won the exciting prize of nothing,” he deadpanned.

Maxi swatted lightly at his chest. “We won _festive cheer,”_ he protested.

Tim laughed. It had been a fun day. He didn’t pity the media team - they were going to have a tough time editing all of the flirting out of a family friendly video.

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Christmas! 🎄


End file.
